The post-acute care industry looks very different than it did five years ago. Reimbursement changes, rising patient acuity and complexity, and new acute care partnership strategies are reshaping how care is delivered in post-acute settings.

The key to success during a time of constant change is having a committed staff who are invested and excited about moving the organization forward. But it’s difficult for staff to be excited when it seems change is occurring and they don’t understand why—especially for frontline staff, who deliver direct care to patients and residents.

Explore three major market forces impacting post-acute care and learn how to prepare your frontline staff for these changes:

• Margins are tightening
• Patient acuity and complexity are rising
• Providers are increasingly accountable for outcomes

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1. Margins are tightening

Frontline staff can likely sense when the organization is tightening its belt, which can generate fear and the potential for disengagement.

The biggest challenge leaders face is communicating to frontline staff why the organization’s margins aren’t as healthy as before, what the root causes are behind the changes, and empowering staff to identify and make changes to improve efficiency. Learn more

2. Patient acuity and complexity are rising

The dual forces of an aging population and increasing pressure to shift patients to lower-cost settings mean post-acute settings are seeing increasing patient acuity and complexity. Frontline staff may resist this challenge, at least partly because of their own worry about safely caring for these patients.

They want to deliver good care but fear their skills aren’t sufficient, or believe a more-acute patient should be treated in a higher-acuity setting.The key to ensuring safe care is to upskill clinicians, teaching them to care for these complex patients, increasing their self-confidence in their ability to do so.Learn more

3. Providers are increasingly accountable for outcomes

As regulation pushes post-acute organizations to demonstrate more accountability for their clinical and operational outcomes, it’s crucial for frontline staff to play their own role in driving quality and compliance.

This means true accountability, even at the frontline staff level. Staff not only need to feel accountable for their assigned patients, but for their peers and the outcomes of their organization as a whole.Learn more